Village candidate to appeal to court

ISLAND LAKE – Whether the name of a village president candidate makes the April ballot is headed for Lake County Circuit Court after the village electoral board voted, 2-1, Monday to disqualify candidate Charles Amrich.

Amrich filed to run against President Debbie Herrmann. He served as president from 1985 to 2005.

Amrich’s attorney, David McArdle, said Tuesday afternoon that an appeal of the electoral board decision will go before a Lake County Circuit Court judge. “We’ll see where it goes from there,” he said.

McArdle said he will ask for an injunction barring the Lake and McHenry county clerks from printing ballots until a decision is rendered.

Electoral board hearings began last month after residents Dan Field and Louis Sharp challenged Amrich’s candidacy. They claimed Amrich was ineligible to run for office because he was “in arrears of water, waste and other debts to the Village of Island Lake at the time he signed his sworn oath in his Statement of Candidacy.”

Their objection filing lacked specific debt amounts.

During Monday’s hearing, a $174 past due bill for trash service was presented. The bill was paid when Amrich filed his nominating papers in December, but after he signed his statement of candidacy form.

That it was paid by the time nominating papers were filed met the requirements to remain qualified, said McArdle, citing the Illinois Supreme Court’s Cinkus case.

Electoral board Chairwoman Shannon Fox and board member Thea Morris voted to deny Amrich’s name on the ballot. Board member Laura Rabattini voted in support of his candidacy.

Field and Sharp also filed a similar objection against Anthony Sciarrone, a village trustee candidate, but later dropped that challenge.

Both men have ties to the current village administration. Field provides IT computer service for village hall, and Sharp’s towing business works with the police department.

Amrich and Sciarrone set out to run on the “For the People” slate. The competing slate, “United for Progress,” includes incumbent President Herrmann.